RCR Lawsuit Settled

After 16 days of testimony Davidson County Jurors were sent home from the trial that pitted the late Dale Earnhart's car owner, Richard Childress Racing, versus United of Omaha Life Insurance company, that didn't payout the policy against Earnhardt's life.



The race team and the insurance company came to a confidential settlement over the weekend.

The dispute was over an unpaid $3.7million insurance policy that covered half of Earnhardt's contractual salary.



Last week the judge ruled in favor of RCR saying that the insurance company's legal department didn't share 18 pages of legal documents before the trial started.

RCR had been asking for triple the $3.7million policy amount plus all legal fees.

Some of the jurors we interviewed while gathering the the story for TV said they felt like the insurance company used dubious tactics to confuse and defraud RCR when it applied for the policy. They also felt like the insurance company didn't do enough to follow up with Earnhardt to get the physical that was at the heart of the insurance company's defense.

I would speculate that the settlement came out of fear on both sides that this thing could drag on into appeals courts and end up costing a lot more in the long run in bad publicity and legal fees.

I think RCR probably got close to what they were asking for.